Collector for drug ring in Mexico pleads guilty

September 04, 2003|By Matt O'Connor, Tribune staff reporter.

A Chicago-area middleman for a Mexican drug cartel pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal drug charges and admitted delivering about $48 million in cocaine proceeds to bosses in Mexico over one 6-month period in 2001.

Prosecutors described Jesus Montalvo, 34, of Berwyn as one of the principal collectors of drug proceeds in the Chicago area for the Mexican cartel.

Authorities recovered almost $1.3 million in Montalvo's residence and a notebook in which he kept detailed records of his deliveries on behalf of Edgar Castro and other undisclosed drug dealers who worked on behalf of the cartel.

From the notebook, agents were able to calculate that Montalvo collected the $48 million in drug proceeds from the Chicago-area distributors between June and December 2001, Assistant U.S. Atty. David Hoffman said.

The proceeds were from the sales of more than 6,150 pounds of cocaine, according to Montalvo's plea agreement with prosecutors.

Montalvo did not agree to cooperate in the continuing investigation, authorities said.

Montalvo was the last of 35 defendants to be charged and convicted so far in an FBI investigation that has uncovered connections between a Mexican cocaine cartel and street gangs in Chicago and Joliet, authorities said.

By government calculation, Montalvo faces up to 14 years in prison when he is sentenced. U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve set sentencing for Nov. 7.

Castro was arrested in December 2001 with more than 100 pounds of cocaine as well as $35,000 in cash he was scheduled to bring Montalvo for delivery to Mexico, Hoffman said.

Castro cooperated and pleaded guilty. He secretly taped a conversation with Montalvo as he delivered a purported $150,000 in drug proceeds to him, court records show.

The duffel bag actually contained pieces of papers, Hoffman said.

According to the plea agreement, Montalvo told Castro he was going to Mexico and another individual would fill his collector's role temporarily.

"He's just like me. The same trust," the plea agreement quoted Montalvo as saying. "We're on the same team, right?"